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Exclusive Interview with AGE OF DINOSAURS Director Joseph Lawson!

If you're an Asylum fan, Joseph Lawson needs no introduction. But in case there are a few newbies aboard - welcome - here's the rundown: after a few years in charge of The Asylum's VFX department, a reign that produced the best visuals in the studio's 15-year history, Lawson added Director to his resume, standing at the helm of two of The Asylum's most talked-about films of the last couple years - Nazis at the Center of the Earth,and Clash of the Empires (nee Age of the Hobbits). After tackling robo-Hitler and lilliputian warriors, Lawson now turns his eye to prehistoric terrors amok in our modern world with the fantasy-disaster flick Age of Dinosaurs, starring Treat Williams (Hair, Deep Rising, Everwood), Jillian Rose Reed (Awkward, Weeds) and the always-awesome Ronny Cox (Robocop, Total Recall, Beverly Hills Cop 1 & 2). In advance of the film's release next week, Mr. Lawson was kind enough to spend a few minutes discussing his work with Committed:

COMMITTED: What can you tell us about the story of Age of Dinosaurs?

JOSEPH LAWSON: The
story of AoD is that a father and daughter who definitely love each
other though they've grown apart since the death of the mom must
re-establish bonds and repair their relationship. With Dinosaurs.
Okay, a LOT of dinosaurs. It's a pretty ambitious film with a number of
threads including a harried police chief, the president of Geneti-Sharp
who must reconcile his drive to save his company with what he has
wrought, his minions and team plus a few other characters who each deal
with their own fates in the face of a dinosaur herd... plus a
particularly driven and vengeful Carnotaurus named Larry. I think folks
will find a lot to have fun with in this movie.
There are also a lot of homages to keep an eye out for, just like my
previous flicks (Clash of the Empires and Nazis at the Center of the
Earth).

C: Your last film - Clash of the Empires - had you traveling to Southeast Asia to shoot; where did AoD shoot, and how long of a shoot was it?

JL: Age
of Dinosaurs was a 15 day shoot in Los Angeles and at East L.A. College,
then a couple of days on a ranch out on the way to Pasadena. It was
nice to be close to home even though the production was so tight on the
heels of Clash of the Empires it was a real challenge to be prepared in
time Fortunately, everyone had the same goal... to make the best
dinosaur film we could with the time and resources we had. I feel the
film looks like we spent a LOT more time shooting than we actually did
and that's a credit to everyone in production.C: What drew you to the project?

JL: I've
always enjoyed dinosaur films where characters have to work things out
while being
chased. When the film showed up on our schedule I hoped it would be
possible to direct though we have a lot of other excellent directors who
were also interested. For whatever reasons the producers... thanks,
gents... let it fall to me to get done. The other thing is that I was
able to eke out from the first draft enough potential for emotional
impact that it made it a good match for my sensibilities as a
storyteller. In the director polish rewrites we added more interplay
between father and daughter. Then on set there was a great chemistry
between Treat Williams and Jillian Rose Reed and a genuinely magical
moment that still brings tears to my eyes. Getting to work with Ronny
Cox was also an amazing joy, an absolute gentleman on set and incredible
to learn from (along with Treat). Overall, the fact that I was blessed
to do a bona fide dinosaur film with such a great and motivated cast,
crew and post teams made all the
challenges worthwhile.

C: What kind of rad VFX can we expect?

JL: A
lot of dinosaur shots, a lot of chomping action, some smart dinos, some
not so smart dinos, the obligatory Asylum helicopter destruction or
two, some shots that I think are among our best. David Michael Latt said
epic, big so we did our best to deliver. He actually joked that our
trailers are supposed to only be two minutes and the one for AoD was
going to be 14... and that the trailer Brian Brinkman did was great and the
movie actually delivered on the promise. I hope folks watching it will
feel the same. Overall, it's great work from modeler Ken Brilliant,
animators Dan Peters, Steve Clarke and John Karner with great VFX from
Sasha Burrow, Aaron Witlin, Paul Knott and compositors Aine Graham and
Derek Serra. I'm also thrilled with the sound design from our sound
teams and Chris Ridenhour's score is just the right music for a JP 3.5
wannabe.
;-)

C: Were there any dinosaur movies you grew up loving, and did they have any influence on AoD?

JL: Valley
of Gwangi, King Kong, ALL the Jurassic Park films.... anything where
genuinely animated dinosaurs or great practical puppet work were the
visual effects, not lizards with cardboard on the back. In the credits
we say thank you to all the pioneers upon whose shoulders we humbly
stand as filmmakers and visualists.

C: What's on the horizon for you? Any new projects in the works?

JL: Nothing
concrete at the moment... a possible bigger budget science fiction
actioner in the near future. They're also letting me write and
hopefully direct a World War 2 movie in 2014 that could harken back to
all the epic films I enjoyed growing up like Patton, Von Ryan's Express,
Battle of the Bulge, The Great Escape... and, of course, always with a
heart at the soul of it.

Age of DInosaurs hits DVD and Blu-Ray this coming Tuesday, May 7th. From the sound of things, we'd all be damn fools to miss it.